Possible new Monticello casino could jeopardize harness racing

Sunday

Nov 12, 2006 at 2:00 AM

Monticello - The casino juggernaut is gaining speed. Again.

The environmental assessment for a St. Regis Mohawk casino at the Monticello Raceway is near final approval. The governor favors Indian gaming for Sullivan, and the governor-elect favors Indian gaming for Sullivan.

But along with the casino gaming question, come these: What about the harness track? Will they keep racing trotters and pacers after they've built a casino?

Heather Yakin

Monticello - The casino juggernaut is gaining speed. Again.

The environmental assessment for a St. Regis Mohawk casino at the Monticello Raceway is near final approval. The governor favors Indian gaming for Sullivan, and the governor-elect favors Indian gaming for Sullivan.

But along with the casino gaming question, come these: What about the harness track? Will they keep racing trotters and pacers after they've built a casino?

IT'S A COOL morning, and a handful of Standardbreds circle the half-mile track at Monticello Raceway.

For 49 years, families — some for three generations — have raced here.

But "If casino gambling comes here, it's going to be the end of racing in Monticello," says Alan Schwartz, a member of the Harness Horsemen's Association board. "Everyone has their homes here. Their kids are in the schools. We're a part of the community."

Management at the track says the casino will only change things for the better, and harness racing will go on.

"It's exactly the right prescription for the harness-racing industry," says Charles Degliomini, vice president of Empire Resorts, which owns the raceway and the video-gaming-machine racino there. "You couldn't ask for a better formula than bringing 6 million people into close proximity to the industry."

"They've always said they plan on continuing racing," says Al DeSimone, president of the horsemen's board and a horse owner himself. But he's not so sure now, if an Indian casino opens.

While state law requires racino operators to give a set percentage of VGM revenue to horsemen, an Indian-owned casino wouldn't have that obligation.

The state hasn't done much to protect horsemen from the whims of the ownership, says Alice Allen, who owns horses at the track.

And the state won't have control over a sovereign nation.

Only the federal government has authority over sovereign Indian nations. States have no such power, unless Congress specifically grants it to them.

This is the horsemen's line of thinking: Under state law, a racino can't operate its VGMs without horse races.

If a casino comes, Empire will make its money there, and won't need VGMs to generate profit. Without VGMs, Empire doesn't need harness racing.

And if racing goes, says Cedric Washington, who trains, drives and owns horses, "it's going to be a domino effect. You're talking about the horsemen, and then the blacksmiths, and feed stores around here."

"There isn't any place for most people to go," says trainer Richard Parsells. Without Monticello Raceway, "you're going to have people who are out of business. They're going to end up on welfare."

THE ST. REGIS MOHAWKS plan to build a 583,600-square-foot casino for $579 million on 29 acres behind the grandstand.

According to corporate filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Empire plans to retain both the harness track and the racino VGMs after the Mohawk casino opens.

Just under 30 acres of casino land will become sovereign territory held in a land trust. The grandstand and track will remain outside the trust land, subject to New York state laws.

Empire says the casino will bring 11,000 jobs to Sullivan, including 3,500 at the casino, and attract half a million more visitors to the raceway per year.

Empire has already sunk $30 million into the project, mostly to transform the bulk of the grandstand building into the racino.

Erlich says they have been gradually fixing up the track, too. Last year, they built a new $2 million paddock where horses are prepped and inspected before and after races.

Jimmy Carpenito, who trains five horses and owns Carpenito's Restaurant across Route 17B from the track, said he came back to Monticello because of gaming.

"When they started with the slots (the VGMs), the purses went up. I'm looking forward to the Indian gaming, because it's going to be even better."

Purses have indeed gone up: The $3,000 top purses of a few years ago have given way to some of $12,500 or $15,000.

The VGMs brought in close to a million people in the first year of operation, Hanlon says. Some of those spectators bet on the races. And the raceway pours a cut of the VGM money into the track.

"I find it almost illogical that they wouldn't be very, very supportive," Degliomini says. "Things have never been better for the horsemen. They just are skeptical." And worried.

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